Morrissey | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by Steve Huey As the lead singer of the Smiths , arguably the most important indie band in Britain during the '80s, Morrissey 's theatrical crooning and literate, poetic lyrics -- filled with romantic angst, social alienation, and cutting wit -- connected powerfully with a legion of similarly sensitive, disaffected youth. These fans turned the Smiths into stars in Britain, exerting tremendous pull over much of the country's guitar-based music for many years after their breakup, and even if the group remained underground cult artists in the States, they had a fan base that slowly, steadily grew larger over the years. Indeed, a few years after the Smiths ' breakup in 1987, Morrissey 's American cult had grown to the point where he became more popular in the U.S. than in his homeland, where he nevertheless was never far from the music press headlines. After a quiet period around the turn of the millennium, Morrissey launched a comeback in 2004 with You Are the Quarry , an album whose success proved that he remained one of the most beloved figures in alternative rock.

Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England; not surprisingly a shy, awkward youth, he became obsessed with music and film as a teenager and devoted his writing talents to penning a New York Dolls fanzine (he was the president of their U.K. fan club), as well as a tribute to James Dean and numerous opinionated letters to the weekly music paper Melody Maker. During the explosion of punk in the late '70s, Morrissey unsuccessfully auditioned for Slaughter & the Dogs and sang for a brief period with a band called the Nosebleeds . He met guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982 and the two began writing songs together, forging one of the most productive partnerships British pop had seen in quite some time. The Smiths ' 1983 debut single, "Hand in Glove," a love song filled with oblique references to homosexuality, made them an underground sensation in the U.K. and as Morrissey attracted more attention, he demonstrated a flair for manipulating the media.

His interviews were filled with blunt, unpredictable opinions and intentionally outrageous statements and his notoriety wasn't hurt by his stage presence (he performed wearing a hearing aid with flowers sticking out of his back pockets) or his self-proclaimed celibacy in the wake of much speculation about his sexuality. Possessed of a darkly cynical bent as a lyricist, he was often misinterpreted as advocating some of the more disturbing things he sang about, which only added to the furor surrounding the band. The Smiths ' eponymous 1984 debut was a smash in the U.K. and in its wake, Morrissey began promoting his political views, heavily criticizing Margaret Thatcher , and advocating vegetarianism (hence the title of the follow-up LP, Meat Is Murder ). The Queen Is Dead (1986) was acclaimed as a masterpiece, but friction between Morrissey and Marr was growing. Marr departed after 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come and Morrissey broke up the rest of the band to begin a solo career. Feeling betrayed by Marr 's defection, Morrissey channeled his frustration into creating new material with producer Stephen Street .

His first two solo singles, "Suedehead" and the gorgeous "Everyday Is Like Sunday," were significant British hits in 1988 and his first album, Viva Hate (its title a reference to the Smiths ' breakup), was commercially and critically well received. He released several more high-quality singles, including "The Last of the International Playboys" and "Interesting Drug," but spent an inordinate amount of time laboring on the follow-up album, issuing the stopgap compilation Bona Drag in 1990. In the meantime, the Madchester fad was sweeping British indie music and when the lackluster Kill Uncle was finally released in 1991, it only magnified the disappointment. U.K. reviewers took Morrissey to task, suggesting that the record marked the end of his glory days and that he would never be able to match the songs he'd written in tandem with Marr . A misperceived flirtation with British nationalism (not helped by a couple of seemingly racial caricatures in recent songs) tarnished his image even more in the U.K.

press during 1992, this coming amid even more frequent reports of feuds with his managers, business associates, and ex-bandmates. All the controversy overshadowed the fact that 1992's Mick Ronson -produced Your Arsenal was a smashing return to form; Morrissey used his new guitar tandem of Alain Whyte (who co-wrote much of the material) and Boz Boorer (formerly of rockabilly revivalists the Polecats ) to full advantage in crafting a crunchy, glammed-up record. It easily ranked as the hardest-rocking of his career. Meanwhile, over in the U.S., tickets for his upcoming tour were selling like hotcakes and he managed to sell out L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl even faster than the Beatles had. His confidence renewed by his American success (to the point where he permanently moved to Los Angeles), Morrissey delivered an equally strong follow-up in 1994's calmer Vauxhall and I , which even got him his first Top 50 singles chart entry in the U.S.

with the MTV-supported "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get." A hit-and-miss compilation, The World of Morrissey , followed in 1995, after which he switched labels (from Sire to RCA) for the first time since the Smiths ' debut album. Also issued in 1995 was the prog rock-informed Southpaw Grammar , which confounded many and perhaps prevented him from expanding his American audience past a now sizable group of longtime listeners. In 1996 he moved to another new label, this time Island, and released Maladjusted the following year. It failed to sell well outside of his most fanatical followers and his relationship with Island ended in 1998. In the years that followed, Morrissey remained a massively popular touring attraction on the strength of his singular identity, despite the fact that he had yet to land another record deal. Finally, he signed his Attack label to Sanctuary, and released his first studio album in seven years, 2004's You Are the Quarry featuring production by Jerry Finn ( blink-182 , Sum 41 , and Green Day ).

The album's leadoff single, "Irish Blood, English Heart," garnered considerable press, radio, and music television attention, and established a comeback of sorts. The concert recording Live at Earls Court followed one year later, as did the DVD concert Who Put the "M" in Manchester? , which saw a brief theatrical release. His second full-length for Sanctuary, Ringleader of the Tormentors , was produced by Tony Visconti ( T. Rex , David Bowie ) and released in spring 2006. Recorded in Rome, the album also featured some orchestration by famed composer Ennio Morricone . Around this time, Morrissey 's longtime guitarist and writing partner Alain Whyte left the band. Although Whyte continued to contribute songs for Morrissey , he was largely replaced on album and in live shows by guitarist Jesse Tobias . In 2009, Morrissey released Years of Refusal , his first under Decca after label changes found Sanctuary being absorbed into the Universal Music Group (which owned Decca). Produced by Finn and once again showcasing guitarist Tobias , Years of Refusal found Morrissey going for a more stripped-down, back-to-basics rock approach.

Sadly, Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage just after wrapping production on the album. He fell into a coma and died just over a month later on August 21, 2008. Despite the tragedy surrounding it, Years of Refusal was largely hailed as Morrissey 's best album in years. Over the next few years, Morrissey busied himself with rejiggered reissues of his solo material and various other compilations surfaced, including the 2009 B-sides collection Swords and the 2011 set Very Best of Morrissey ; he also played live with semi-regularity. Early in the summer of 2012, he announced in an interview with JuiceOnline.com that he was tentatively planning to retire in 2014. Morrissey then spent much of 2012 and 2013 touring the world, either side of an early-2013 period of bad health that saw him hospitalized first for an ulcer and then for a bout of pneumonia.

A film of a March 2013 show at L.A.'s Hollywood High School saw a cinema release as 25Live that August and was issued on DVD and Blu-ray before the end of the year. His autobiography -- published through Penguin Classics that October -- was well-received and became a number one best-seller in the U.K. In January 2014, despite his earlier proclamation of retirement, Morrissey signed a new record deal, this time with Capitol. Six months later he released his tenth studio album, World Peace Is None of Your Business , on Capitol's Harvest imprint. In promotion of the album, Morrissey shot several short films, released online, in which he delivered spoken word versions of the title track as well as the singles "Istanbul," "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet," and "The Bullfighter Dies." By August of 2014 Morrissey was once again without a label, having parted ways with Harvest. He also revealed that he'd undergone treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. Nonetheless, he continued touring, wrapping up the year with a two-month stint in Europe.

In January 2015, following several live shows in the U.K., Morrissey appeared in a high-profile concert at New York's Madison Square Garden supported by Blondie . That March he released a fifth single from World Peace Is None of Your Business , the digital download "Kiss Me a Lot." Also in 2015, Morrissey announced the publication of his debut novel, List of the Lost, for Penguin. Morrissey | New Music And Songs | Morrissey About Morrissey As the lead singer of the Smiths, arguably the most important indie band in Britain during the '80s, Morrissey's theatrical crooning and literate, poetic lyrics -- filled with romantic angst, social alienation, and cutting wit -- connected powerfully with a legion of similarly sensitive, disaffected youth. These fans turned the Smiths into stars in Britain, exerting tremendous pull over much of the country's guitar-based music for many years after their breakup, and even if the group remained underground cult artists in the States, they had a fan base that slowly, steadily grew larger over the years.

Indeed, a few years after the Smiths' breakup in 1987, Morrissey's American cult had grown to the point where he became more popular in the U.S. than in his homeland, where he nevertheless was never far from the music press headlines. After a quiet period around the turn of the millennium, Morrissey launched a comeback in 2004 with You Are the Quarry, an album whose success proved that he remained one of the most beloved figures in alternative rock. Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England; not surprisingly a shy, awkward youth, he became obsessed with music and film as a teenager and devoted his writing talents to penning a New York Dolls fanzine (he was the president of their U.K. fan club), as well as a tribute to James Dean and numerous opinionated letters to the weekly music paper Melody Maker. During the explosion of punk in the late '70s, Morrissey unsuccessfully auditioned for Slaughter & the Dogs and sang for a brief period with a band called the Nosebleeds.

He met guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982 and the two began writing songs together, forging one of the most productive partnerships British pop had seen in quite some time. The Smiths' 1983 debut single, "Hand in Glove," a love song filled with oblique references to homosexuality, made them an underground sensation in the U.K. and as Morrissey attracted more attention, he demonstrated a flair for manipulating the media. His interviews were filled with blunt, unpredictable opinions and intentionally outrageous statements and his notoriety wasn't hurt by his stage presence (he performed wearing a hearing aid with flowers sticking out of his back pockets) or his self-proclaimed celibacy in the wake of much speculation about his sexuality. Possessed of a darkly cynical bent as a lyricist, he was often misinterpreted as advocating some of the more disturbing things he sang about, which only added to the furor surrounding the band. The Smiths' eponymous 1984 debut was a smash in the U.K. and in its wake, Morrissey began promoting his political views, heavily criticizing Margaret Thatcher, and advocating vegetarianism (hence the title of the follow-up LP, Meat Is Murder).

The Queen Is Dead (1986) was acclaimed as a masterpiece, but friction between Morrissey and Marr was growing. Marr departed after 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come and Morrissey broke up the rest of the band to begin a solo career. Feeling betrayed by Marr's defection, Morrissey channeled his frustration into creating new material with producer Stephen Street. His first two solo singles, "Suedehead" and the gorgeous "Everyday Is Like Sunday," were significant British hits in 1988 and his first album, Viva Hate (its title a reference to the Smiths' breakup), was commercially and critically well received. He released several more high-quality singles, including "The Last of the International Playboys" and "Interesting Drug," but spent an inordinate amount of time laboring on the follow-up album, issuing the stopgap compilation Bona Drag in 1990. In the meantime, the Madchester fad was sweeping British indie music and when the lackluster Kill Uncle was finally released in 1991, it only magnified the disappointment. U.K.

reviewers took Morrissey to task, suggesting that the record marked the end of his glory days and that he would never be able to match the songs he'd written in tandem with Marr. A misperceived flirtation with British nationalism (not helped by a couple of seemingly racial caricatures in recent songs) tarnished his image even more in the U.K. press during 1992, this coming amid even more frequent reports of feuds with his managers, business associates, and ex-bandmates. All the controversy overshadowed the fact that 1992's Mick Ronson-produced Your Arsenal was a smashing return to form; Morrissey used his new guitar tandem of Alain Whyte (who co-wrote much of the material) and Boz Boorer (formerly of rockabilly revivalists the Polecats) to full advantage in crafting a crunchy, glammed-up record. It easily ranked as the hardest-rocking of his career. Meanwhile, over in the U.S., tickets for his upcoming tour were selling like hotcakes and he managed to sell out L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl even faster than the Beatles had.

His confidence renewed by his American success (to the point where he permanently moved to Los Angeles), Morrissey delivered an equally strong follow-up in 1994's calmer Vauxhall and I, which even got him his first Top 50 singles chart entry in the U.S. with the MTV-supported "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get." A hit-and-miss compilation, The World of Morrissey, followed in 1995, after which he switched labels (from Sire to RCA) for the first time since the Smiths' debut album. Also issued in 1995 was the prog rock-informed Southpaw Grammar, which confounded many and perhaps prevented him from expanding his American audience past a now sizable group of longtime listeners. In 1996 he moved to another new label, this time Island, and released Maladjusted the following year. It failed to sell well outside of his most fanatical followers and his relationship with Island ended in 1998. In the years that followed, Morrissey remained a massively popular touring attraction on the strength of his singular identity, despite the fact that he had yet to land another record deal.

Finally, he signed his Attack label to Sanctuary, and released his first studio album in seven years, 2004's You Are the Quarry featuring production by Jerry Finn (blink-182, Sum 41, and Green Day). The album's leadoff single, "Irish Blood, English Heart," garnered considerable press, radio, and music television attention, and established a comeback of sorts. The concert recording Live at Earls Court followed one year later, as did the DVD concert Who Put the "M" in Manchester?, which saw a brief theatrical release. His second full-length for Sanctuary, Ringleader of the Tormentors, was produced by Tony Visconti (T. Rex, David Bowie) and released in spring 2006. Recorded in Rome, the album also featured some orchestration by famed composer Ennio Morricone. Around this time, Morrissey's longtime guitarist and writing partner Alain Whyte left the band. Although Whyte continued to contribute songs for Morrissey, he was largely replaced on album and in live shows by guitarist Jesse Tobias.

In 2009, Morrissey released Years of Refusal, his first under Decca after label changes found Sanctuary being absorbed into the Universal Music Group (which owned Decca). Produced by Finn and once again showcasing guitarist Tobias, Years of Refusal found Morrissey going for a more stripped-down, back-to-basics rock approach. Sadly, Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage just after wrapping production on the album. He fell into a coma and died just over a month later on August 21, 2008. Despite the tragedy surrounding it, Years of Refusal was largely hailed as Morrissey's best album in years. Over the next few years, Morrissey busied himself with rejiggered reissues of his solo material and various other compilations surfaced, including the 2009 B-sides collection Swords and the 2011 set Very Best of Morrissey; he also played live with semi-regularity. Early in the summer of 2012, he announced in an interview with JuiceOnline.com that he was tentatively planning to retire in 2014.

Morrissey then spent much of 2012 and 2013 touring the world, either side of an early-2013 period of bad health that saw him hospitalized first for an ulcer and then for a bout of pneumonia. A film of a March 2013 show at L.A.'s Hollywood High School saw a cinema release as 25Live that August and was issued on DVD and Blu-ray before the end of the year. His autobiography -- published through Penguin Classics that October -- was well-received and became a number one best-seller in the U.K. In January 2014, despite his earlier proclamation of retirement, Morrissey signed a new record deal, this time with Capitol. Six months later he released his tenth studio album, World Peace Is None of Your Business, on Capitol's Harvest imprint. In promotion of the album, Morrissey shot several short films, released online, in which he delivered spoken word versions of the title track as well as the singles "Istanbul," "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet," and "The Bullfighter Dies." By August of 2014 Morrissey was once again without a label, having parted ways with Harvest.

He also revealed that he'd undergone treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. Nonetheless, he continued touring, wrapping up the year with a two-month stint in Europe. In January 2015, following several live shows in the U.K., Morrissey appeared in a high-profile concert at New York's Madison Square Garden supported by Blondie. That March he released a fifth single from World Peace Is None of Your Business, the digital download "Kiss Me a Lot." Also in 2015, Morrissey announced the publication of his debut novel, List of the Lost, for Penguin. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi Morrissey — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at Last.fm morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey, better known as Morrissey, is a British singer and lyricist of Irish descent born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, United Kingdom on May 22, 1959. He was the lead singer of The Smiths , one of the most influential alternative bands in the 1980s. The group split up in 1987 and Morrissey started a successful solo career.

His first solo album, Viva Hate was released only six months after The Smiths split, in March 1988. The album's first single "… read more Former Smiths Singer Morrissey Isn't Gay, Says He's 'Humasexual' | TIME.com Follow @TIMECulture Leave it to Morrissey to publish a hotly anticipated memoir and still manage to remain unforthcoming. The former Smiths frontman has responded to renewed questions about his sexuality, which arose after the Oct. 17 European release of his memoir, Autobiography. In a statement to a Morrissey fan site, True to You , the singer said over the weekend, “Unfortunately, I am not homosexual. In technical fact, I am humasexual.” Humasexual, as defined by Morrissey, means “I am attracted to humans. But, of course … not many.” (This is Morrissey we’re talking about here.) For much of his career, Morrissey described himself as celibate, but he never publicly defined his sexual preference. Even in his memoir, the notoriously reticent singer doesn’t directly addresses sex , but he does describe his first serious relationship with a man called Jake Owen Walters.

“[F]or the first time in my life the eternal ‘I’ becomes ‘we’, as, finally, I can get on with someone,” he writes of Walters. “Jake and I neither sought not needed company other than our own for the whirlwind stretch to come.” Morrissey, now 54, also describes how he was altogether uninterested in girls as a teenager, which seemed to confirm that he was gay. Yet, ever the enigma, he also admits later in the book that he once considered having children — with a woman. When is comes to Morrissey, it seems that “humasexual” is about as straightforward as we can expect. Subscribe Popular Among Subscribers Morrissey dead 2017 : Smiths frontman killed by celebrity death hoax - Mediamass MediaMass See more news , pictures and video . Hot news Morrissey: New Album and 2017 World Tour? News of singer Morrissey ’s death spread quickly earlier this week causing concern among fans across the world. However the January 2017 report has now been confirmed as a complete hoax and just the latest in a string of fake celebrity death reports. Thankfully, Smiths frontman is alive and well.

UPDATE 20/01/2017 : This story seems to be false. (read more) Morrissey death hoax spreads on Facebook Rumors of the singer’s alleged demise gained traction on Wednesday after a ‘R.I.P. Morrissey’ Facebook page attracted nearly one million of ‘likes’. Those who read the ‘About’ page were given a believable account of the British singer’s passing: “At about 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday (January 18, 2017), our beloved singer Morrissey passed away. Morrissey was born on May 22, 1959 in Davyhulme. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.” Hundreds of fans immediately started writing their messages of condolence on the Facebook page, expressing their sadness that the talented 57-year-old singer and songwriter was dead. And as usual, Twittersphere was frenzied over the death hoax. Where as some trusting fans believed the post, others were immediately skeptical of the report, perhaps learning their lesson from the huge amount of fake death reports emerging about celebrities over recent months.

Some pointed out that the news had not been carried on any major British network, indicating that it was a fake report, as the death of a singer of Morrissey's stature would be major news across networks. A recent poll conducted for the Celebrity Post shows that a large majority (72%) of respondents think those Morrissey death rumors are not funny anymore. Morrissey Death Hoax Dismissed Since Singer Is ‘Alive And Well’ On Thursday (January 19) the singer's reps officially confirmed that Morrissey is not dead. “He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet,” they said. Some fans have expressed anger at the fake report saying it was reckless, distressing and hurtful to fans of the much loved singer. Others say this shows his extreme popularity across the globe. © 2017 MediaMass All rights reserved. Do not reproduce (even with permission).

Morrissey: Recent News The Smiths | Rolling Stone artists > T > The Smiths > Bio The Smiths Bio The Smiths became one of the most influential bands of all time by mixing the lush guitar matrices of Johnny Marr with the swooning vocals of Morrissey – a sexually ambiguous poet whose cranky yet delicate singing made most other British frontmen of the Eighties seem utterly normal (and boring). Morrissey often appeared in public wearing hearing aid, carried a pocketful of gladioli while performing, and was a magnet for controversy, whether advocating animal rights or trashing the charity supergroup Band-Aid, which he called "diabolical" (he also called the group's album "tuneless" and their leader Bob Geldof "a nauseating character"). None of that would have mattered had the Smiths' meticulous and romantic pop songs not been so strong. But the band provided a guitar-based alternative to the synth-pop sounds of so many other Eighties UK bands, paving the way for the Nineties Brit-pop explosion, and the Smiths' distinct LPs are still studied by millions of sensitive types all over the world.

Born in Manchester and the son of a hospital porter and a librarian, Morrissey first expressed himself by writing; unemployed in the late Seventies, he wrote a book on James Dean and another on the New York Dolls, whose English fan club he headed. He also played briefly in a band called the Nosebleeds. Veteran of such cult groups as Sister Ray and Freaky Party, Marr first met Morrissey at a 1979 Patti Smith concert, and by 1982 they decided to form a band. The pair eventually enlisted drummer Mike Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke for an eponymous debut that, on U.K. indie label Rough Trade (on Sire in the U.S.), entered the British chart at Number Two. An earlier single, "Hand in Glove," was then recorded with Morrissey's favorite female singer, Sixties British pop idol Sandie Shaw, and scored Number 27 in the U.K. This coup, along with The Smiths' "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (Number 10 U.K., 1984), established the band.

The meteoric rise continued with Meat Is Murder debuting at Number One on the British chart; the group also caused a stir with Morrissey's stage presence, the singer wearing a garland of gladioli in tribute to Oscar Wilde, a hearing aid in homage to Fifties balladeer Johnnie Ray, and a ducktail haircut patterned after English rocker Billy Fury. Some critics sniped that the group's lyrics referred to child molesting, and Morrissey offended others with sharp comments about the all-star Band Aid benefit single for Ethiopian famine relief. His champions, though, hailed his oblique, angst-driven songs as latter-day examples of Ray Davies-styled social commentary. With ex-Aztec Camera guitarist Craig Gannon added, 1986's The Queen Is Dead (Number Two U.K.) fared handsomely, but a disappointing U.S. tour showed that the Smiths had yet to penetrate the American mainstream. Later that year Johnny Marr was involved in a serious car accident; during his recovery, Gannon was fired. A single, "Sheila Take a Bow," became a Top 10 U.K.

hit in mid-1987, but later that year, with Marr deeming their musical approach exhausted, the Smiths disbanded. Strangeways, Here We Come and the live Rank were released posthumously. Despite his prolific output — Viva Hate, Bona Drag, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal, and Vauxhall and I — Morrissey's solo career hasn't quite matched his success with the Smiths, although the singer has attracted a rabid following in the U.S. He released 1995's Southpaw Grammar (Number 66) and 1997's Maladjusted (Number 61) to an ambivalent critical response. (My Early Burglary Years was a collection of B sides and rarities.) But a tour in 2000 enjoyed sell-out crowds without a new album or even a record deal. In 2004, Morrissey released You Are the Quarry (Number 11), his first solo album in seven years and highest-charting ever, then embarked on a triumphant tour. Well-received albums followed in 2006 and 2009.

Besides playing sessions with Bryan Ferry, Talking Heads, the Pet Shop Boys, and Billy Bragg, Marr served for a while with the Pretenders, The The, and Electronic without ever finding a permanent venue. Marr's low profile led to a reputation as British rock's most talented underachiever. But he reemerged in 2000 for the first time at the front of his own band, the Healers, which included former Dub Pistol keyboardist Lee Spender, bassist Alonza Bevan from Kula Shaker, and drummer Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr). Later in the decade Marr continued to act as a guitar mercenary, joining Modest Mouse in 2006. He toured with the band and performed on their Number One album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007). In 2008 Marr joined the English band The Cribs and played on their 2009 album, Ignore the Ignorant. Rourke and Joyce played with the Adult Net before backing up Sinead O'Connor; Joyce eventually joined the reformed Buzzcocks.

In 1996 they both sued Marr and Morrissey, complaining over the unequal sharing of Smiths earnings; Rourke settled out of court, but in 1998 Joyce won his case, with a British judge calling Morrissey "devious, truculent, and unreliable." A reunion is not expected. from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001) Morrissey on Apple Music To preview a song, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to buy and download music. Biography As the lead singer of the Smiths, arguably the most important indie band in Britain during the '80s, Morrissey's theatrical crooning and literate, poetic lyrics -- filled with romantic angst, social alienation, and cutting wit -- connected powerfully with a legion of similarly sensitive, disaffected youth. These fans turned the Smiths into stars in Britain, exerting tremendous pull over much of the country's guitar-based music for many years after their breakup, and even if the group remained underground cult artists in the States, they had a fan base that slowly, steadily grew larger over the years.

Indeed, a few years after the Smiths' breakup in 1987, Morrissey's American cult had grown to the point where he became more popular in the U.S. than in his homeland, where he nevertheless was never far from the music press headlines. After a quiet period around the turn of the millennium, Morrissey launched a comeback in 2004 with You Are the Quarry, an album whose success proved that he remained one of the most beloved figures in alternative rock. Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England; not surprisingly a shy, awkward youth, he became obsessed with music and film as a teenager and devoted his writing talents to penning a New York Dolls fanzine (he was the president of their U.K. fan club), as well as a tribute to James Dean and numerous opinionated letters to the weekly music paper Melody Maker. During the explosion of punk in the late '70s, Morrissey unsuccessfully auditioned for Slaughter & the Dogs and sang for a brief period with a band called the Nosebleeds.

He met guitarist Johnny Marr in 1982 and the two began writing songs together, forging one of the most productive partnerships British pop had seen in quite some time. The Smiths' 1983 debut single, "Hand in Glove," a love song filled with oblique references to homosexuality, made them an underground sensation in the U.K. and as Morrissey attracted more attention, he demonstrated a flair for manipulating the media. His interviews were filled with blunt, unpredictable opinions and intentionally outrageous statements and his notoriety wasn't hurt by his stage presence (he performed wearing a hearing aid with flowers sticking out of his back pockets) or his self-proclaimed celibacy in the wake of much speculation about his sexuality. Possessed of a darkly cynical bent as a lyricist, he was often misinterpreted as advocating some of the more disturbing things he sang about, which only added to the furor surrounding the band. The Smiths' eponymous 1984 debut was a smash in the U.K. and in its wake, Morrissey began promoting his political views, heavily criticizing Margaret Thatcher, and advocating vegetarianism (hence the title of the follow-up LP, Meat Is Murder).

The Queen Is Dead (1986) was acclaimed as a masterpiece, but friction between Morrissey and Marr was growing. Marr departed after 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come and Morrissey broke up the rest of the band to begin a solo career. Feeling betrayed by Marr's defection, Morrissey channeled his frustration into creating new material with producer Stephen Street. His first two solo singles, "Suedehead" and the gorgeous "Everyday Is Like Sunday," were significant British hits in 1988 and his first album, Viva Hate (its title a reference to the Smiths' breakup), was commercially and critically well received. He released several more high-quality singles, including "The Last of the International Playboys" and "Interesting Drug," but spent an inordinate amount of time laboring on the follow-up album, issuing the stopgap compilation Bona Drag in 1990. In the meantime, the Madchester fad was sweeping British indie music and when the lackluster Kill Uncle was finally released in 1991, it only magnified the disappointment. U.K.

reviewers took Morrissey to task, suggesting that the record marked the end of his glory days and that he would never be able to match the songs he'd written in tandem with Marr. A misperceived flirtation with British nationalism (not helped by a couple of seemingly racial caricatures in recent songs) tarnished his image even more in the U.K. press during 1992, this coming amid even more frequent reports of feuds with his managers, business associates, and ex-bandmates. All the controversy overshadowed the fact that 1992's Mick Ronson-produced Your Arsenal was a smashing return to form; Morrissey used his new guitar tandem of Alain Whyte (who co-wrote much of the material) and Boz Boorer (formerly of rockabilly revivalists the Polecats) to full advantage in crafting a crunchy, glammed-up record. It easily ranked as the hardest-rocking of his career. Meanwhile, over in the U.S., tickets for his upcoming tour were selling like hotcakes and he managed to sell out L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl even faster than the Beatles had.

His confidence renewed by his American success (to the point where he permanently moved to Los Angeles), Morrissey delivered an equally strong follow-up in 1994's calmer Vauxhall and I, which even got him his first Top 50 singles chart entry in the U.S. with the MTV-supported "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get." A hit-and-miss compilation, The World of Morrissey, followed in 1995, after which he switched labels (from Sire to RCA) for the first time since the Smiths' debut album. Also issued in 1995 was the prog rock-informed Southpaw Grammar, which confounded many and perhaps prevented him from expanding his American audience past a now sizable group of longtime listeners. In 1996 he moved to another new label, this time Island, and released Maladjusted the following year. It failed to sell well outside of his most fanatical followers and his relationship with Island ended in 1998. In the years that followed, Morrissey remained a massively popular touring attraction on the strength of his singular identity, despite the fact that he had yet to land another record deal.

Finally, he signed his Attack label to Sanctuary, and released his first studio album in seven years, 2004's You Are the Quarry featuring production by Jerry Finn (blink-182, Sum 41, and Green Day). The album's leadoff single, "Irish Blood, English Heart," garnered considerable press, radio, and music television attention, and established a comeback of sorts. The concert recording Live at Earls Court followed one year later, as did the DVD concert Who Put the "M" in Manchester?, which saw a brief theatrical release. His second full-length for Sanctuary, Ringleader of the Tormentors, was produced by Tony Visconti (T. Rex, David Bowie) and released in spring 2006. Recorded in Rome, the album also featured some orchestration by famed composer Ennio Morricone. Around this time, Morrissey's longtime guitarist and writing partner Alain Whyte left the band. Although Whyte continued to contribute songs for Morrissey, he was largely replaced on album and in live shows by guitarist Jesse Tobias.

In 2009, Morrissey released Years of Refusal, his first under Decca after label changes found Sanctuary being absorbed into the Universal Music Group (which owned Decca). Produced by Finn and once again showcasing guitarist Tobias, Years of Refusal found Morrissey going for a more stripped-down, back-to-basics rock approach. Sadly, Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage just after wrapping production on the album. He fell into a coma and died just over a month later on August 21, 2008. Despite the tragedy surrounding it, Years of Refusal was largely hailed as Morrissey's best album in years. Over the next few years, Morrissey busied himself with rejiggered reissues of his solo material and various other compilations surfaced, including the 2009 B-sides collection Swords and the 2011 set Very Best of Morrissey; he also played live with semi-regularity. Early in the summer of 2012, he announced in an interview with JuiceOnline.com that he was tentatively planning to retire in 2014.

Morrissey then spent much of 2012 and 2013 touring the world, either side of an early-2013 period of bad health that saw him hospitalized first for an ulcer and then for a bout of pneumonia. A film of a March 2013 show at L.A.'s Hollywood High School saw a cinema release as 25Live that August and was issued on DVD and Blu-ray before the end of the year. His autobiography -- published through Penguin Classics that October -- was well-received and became a number one best-seller in the U.K. In January 2014, despite his earlier proclamation of retirement, Morrissey signed a new record deal, this time with Capitol. Six months later he released his tenth studio album, World Peace Is None of Your Business, on Capitol's Harvest imprint. In promotion of the album, Morrissey shot several short films, released online, in which he delivered spoken word versions of the title track as well as the singles "Istanbul," "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet," and "The Bullfighter Dies." By August of 2014 Morrissey was once again without a label, having parted ways with Harvest.

He also revealed that he'd undergone treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. Nonetheless, he continued touring, wrapping up the year with a two-month stint in Europe. In January 2015, following several live shows in the U.K., Morrissey appeared in a high-profile concert at New York's Madison Square Garden supported by Blondie. That March he released a fifth single from World Peace Is None of Your Business, the digital download "Kiss Me a Lot." Also in 2015, Morrissey announced the publication of his debut novel, List of the Lost, for Penguin. ~ Steve Huey Top Albums Morrissey hails unsigned group's frontwoman as 'best British singer in years' - NME NME 10:56 am - Oct 13, 2010 0shares Doll & The Kicks tell NME how former Smiths man became their Number One fan Press Morrissey has hailed a new band, declaring their frontwoman the “the best British singer of recent years”. The former Smiths frontman has lent his support to Brighton-based group Doll & The Kicks , praising lead singer Hannah Scanlon‘s vocals in particular.

“When I first saw Doll & The Kicks live, I could not, even with the best will in the world, look away,” explained Morrissey . “I can’t be reasoned with where Hannah is concerned – she is the best British singer of recent years. She will sing an entire song without any breathing lulls, and the boys seal her confidence brilliantly. How they work off each other is the most any group could give; the soft tones as arresting as the muscular tones. They certainly deserve far more serious treatment than they have received.” The singer has invited the new band to support him and expressed his surprise that they remain unsigned. “The fact that they remain unsigned is bizarre beyond belief, but insofar as I can tell, the entire point of the X Factor culture is to starve genuine music out of existence – whether that be Doll & The Kicks, or, for that matter, me,” he noted. “What this means, I think, is that, these days, being blacklisted from the game is a compliment, and you can’t continue to pledge allegiance to the world of music if it doesn’t pledge allegiance to you.” Reacting to Morrissey ‘s praise, Scanlon told NME she was “honoured”.

“How can you not be pleased to hear anyone describe you as such [the best British singer in recent years], let alone have that person be Morrissey , the undisputed Indie King and an awe-inspiring talent right up to this day,” she explained. “It’s a huge accolade for anyone and I’m truly honoured.” She added that the band, who have been going for about five years, had been introduced to Morrissey through a former manager. “He just decided to come down and watch us live. We didn’t think he would come and we certainly didn’t think he would stay, I had heard he quite often leaves in disappointment a few songs into many gigs. But he was still there at the end and had moved to a position in the front,” recalled Scanlon. “Then he made a point of talking to each of us individually about the music and what he liked about it; he notices everything in great detail. I remember thinking that he was not at all how I had imagined.” The band, who have a series of dates of their own lined up, including one at London‘s Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen tonight (October 13), added that not only had Morrissey surprised them, but his fans had too when they played dates together.

“ Morrissey fans are not quite like any other fans you will ever meet,” admitted Scanlon. “We were told to brace ourselves for hostility at the worst and indifference at best which is why we were shocked with the warm reaction we were given and the support we still receive to this day. We grew into what we are now on that tour; we sound, play and look like a different band and every gig was intense and utterly exciting.” For more on the band, including dates see MySpace.com/dollandthekicks . Song Stories

Question: With which group was Morrissey the lead singer?
Answer: The Smiths